Subject: RECORD: staple gismu ("buckwheat")

From: [email-masked]
Date: Wed, 12 Apr 2000 12:14:08 EDT

Lojban words for staples are to be used in the broadest useful sense, with 
more specific sense done by either compounds or context. The examples given 
are all of genera or family in the biologic sense (buckwheat-sorrel-rhubarb, 
taro-manioc-yam). 
But clearly other extensions are also intended. I think that the lojban 
word for potato (palto in my old list) covers both potatoes, a kind of 
nightshade shrub, and sweet potatoes, a kind of morningglory vine, with no 
useful biological connections. rismi (or whatever) covers both rice and wild 
rice and I don't think the latter is even graminacious. I suspect there are 
other cases where function or look or perhaps (as in these cases) English has 
pointed to the range of understanding (peanuts are more peas than nuts 
biologically, and cashews are apples, not oaks). Maybe we need some 
specifications within the dictionary on how these are to be spread -- more 
than just the (as in the case of "buckwheat") initally obscure list of cases.
I also wonder what about the reverse cases, where a single species covers a 
variety of things -- Brassica oleoracea springs to mind (cabbage, kale, 
kohlrabi, cauliflower, broccoli, Brussel sprouts, and I think some oriental 
veggies as well -- more diverse than Canis familiaris).